Michael MuchmoreSerif PhotoPlus X6Serif PhotoPlus remains an inexpensive alternative to Photoshop (and Photoshop Elements), but don't expect all the power and the slick interfaces of those applications.

Tons of powerful photo editing tools and effects. Lots of help with processes. Geo-tagging. Layers and masks. Level and curve adjustment. Many filters. GIF animation. Upload directly to Facebook and Flickr. Good silhouette cutout tool. Tilt-shift and other depth of field effects.

Serif PhotoPlus remains an inexpensive alternative to Photoshop (and Photoshop Elements), but don't expect all the power and the slick interfaces of those applications.

Enhance PhotosSerif sports a raft of filters for things like distortion, blur, sharpening, edge effects, noise (adding and removing), along with stylistic (think comic book and film grain) and artistic (Impressionist, Expressionist, even Munchist) effects. Several of these had a universal "No" sign circle with a line across it, meaning I couldn't apply them since I was working with a raw camera file; JPGs didn't have this issue. You can browse all these effects in the filter gallery, easily accessible from a button atop the program window. The comic book effect doesn't offer as much control as competitors, but some of the artistic effect let you choose stroke lengths and more.

The last version added an HDR tool; this version of PhotoPlus sees the addition of tool that's become a requirement in photo software: selective focus, aka "tilt-shift." Part of the Depth of Field, tool Tilt Shift offers guides you can move to capture the part of a shot that you want in focus, and also lets you boost brightness and saturation for a more powerful effect, but when I used the brightness boost, the effect was ruined because its edge was hard rather than feathered. Other depth of field options, such as elliptical, linear gradient, and layer mask, can make your subject pop out from the background.

Another advanced tool in the editor is Cutout Studio, which resembles Photoshop Elements' "out of bounds" feature that lets you extract the subject of a photo from the background. Its built-in instructions made marking parts of the photo to keep and discard a snap. Other procedures included similarly helpful tutorials, similar to Corel's sidebar and Adobe's Guided Edits. I could either correct red eyes or blemishes easily in the PhotoFix or using layers the Photoshop way in the full PhotoPlus editor.

Like Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, PhotoPlus offers deep text tools with layer effects like drop shadow, glow, and bevel. It also offers plenty of digital painting capability, and the ability to deform an image using a grid overlay. An airbrush option can be checked, but it starts out with too much pain. Some brushes are pressure sensitive for tablet input devices.

Sharing and Exporting PhotosYou can export your work in PSD format if you recipient requires Adobe's format. PhotoPlus can launch a basic pan-and-zoom slideshow using selected images in Organizer, there's nothing like the kind of slideshow creation including background music and transition choices such as you'll find in competitors. Serif's CraftArtist is a separate (238MB) install that lets you create projects like photo books, cards, and scrapbooks. Fortunately, if you buy PhotoPlus, though, CraftArtist is included in the price, but it pales in comparison with Photoshop Elements’ integrated creative options.

Uploading to Facebook or Flickr from within PhotoPlus's Organizer was a simple matter of signing into my account. But I wasn't asked about where to put the photo or privacy settings, let alone tags or descriptions. Each time I had to approve access, but I didn't see the uploaded photos in my stream. When the upload was complete, my browser helpfully opened to the photo on the site.

For some, PhotoPlus could serve as an inexpensive Photoshop replacement—it offers many of the more popular but far more expensive apps' features, including layers, filters, selections, image adjustments and text tools. This version is faster and offers a few more capabilities over the previous one, but it's still far behind our consumer photo software Editors' Choice, Photoshop Elements 11, in usability and cool features, and far behind our pro-level Editors' Choice, Adobe Photoshop CS6 in advanced, highly controllable effects.

Other Serif Photo Editing

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered services and software for ExtremeTech.com.
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